Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Trailer Starring Viola Davis & Chadwick Boseman

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Trailer Starring Viola Davis & Chadwick Boseman

October 19, 2020

Netflix has released the official trailer for Chadwick Boseman’s final film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the feature adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s Tony Award-nominated play. Debuting on Netflix on December 18, you can check out the trailer for the movie now in the player below!

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom stars Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis as she takes on the titular role of the trailblazing blues singer with the late Chadwick Boseman (42, Black Panther) playing Levee, Ma’s young and ambitious trumpeter love interest, who aspired to make his own mark in the music industry.

Chicago, 1927. A recording session. Tensions rise between Ma Rainey (Viola Davis), her ambitious horn player (Chadwick Boseman), and the white management determined to control the legendary “Mother of the Blues.”

Joining Davis and Boseman are Emmy winner Glynn Turman (Mr.Mercedes, How To Get Away With Murder, In Treatment), Colman Domingo (If Beale Street Could Talk), Michael Potts (Show Me A Hero, True Detective), Dusan Brown (42), and Taylour Paige (White Boy Rick).

The film is directed by Tony winner George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks). The script was adapted by Ruben Santiago Hudson. Todd Black and Dany Wolf produce alongside Denzel Washington. This project will be the third collaboration between Davis and Washington, who previously worked on the 2010 Broadway revival and 2016 film adaptation of Fences.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom opened at Broadway’s Cort Theatre in October 1984, playing 276 performances before closing in June 1985 when it earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Play and took home a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play.